How to Maximise Your Time on LinkedIn

Once you’ve updated your LinkedIn Profile, it’s time to be more active on LinkedIn. And this is where I see a lot of professionals get stuck. They are not sure where to begin and may also be too busy to dedicate headspace to researching detailed tutorials on what to do when they are on LinkedIn.

While there are lots of complimentary resources here on Think Bespoke’s website to show you how to unlock LinkedIn for your career and business, this article is a 3-5 minute read for those who want a quick snapshot on what to do when you are on LinkedIn.

Depending on your user preferences, you can either access LinkedIn from:

What Type of LinkedIn User Are You?

When training clients in the networking and daily ritual stage of being more active on LinkedIn, I generally find there are 3 broad types of LinkedIn users, depending on where they are at in their LinkedIn Journey.

These include:

The Researcher

The Connector

The Contributor

Please allow me to explain these in more detail. In doing so, I will also share with you my suggestions for the type of LinkedIn activity I recommend for each of these user types to help them maximise their time online each week.

The Researcher

The Researcher has decided to be more active on LinkedIn for the purpose of client research or to help make their next career move. They’ve taken the time to update their profile and now want to reach out to colleagues (past and present) and start more conversations online. They understand that the world has changed, and that conversations on professional networking platforms like LinkedIn have the potential to enhance and amplify their offline activities.

Given their primary goal is research, The Researcher wants to reach out to people they know and learn from others who are in industries and roles that interest them and will help serve their own professional goals and plans for their career or business.

How the Researcher can Maximise Their Time on LinkedIn

More regular LinkedIn activity for the Researcher may include:

Accepting invitations to connect

Reviewing LinkedIn’s suggestions for who they may want to connect with

Following up face to face conversations by inviting new contacts to connect on LinkedIn

Improving their LinkedIn newsfeed by following relevant companies, influencers and schools

Joining relevant groups on LinkedIn

The Connector

The Connector has a bit of a love/hate relationship with LinkedIn and tends to go in peaks and troughs with their LinkedIn activity. They’ve never really got any results from the time they’ve spent on LinkedIn. They also find LinkedIn a bit boring and would prefer to chat with their online communities over on more social platforms like Facebook.

Interestingly, the Connector is starting to feel like the time they are investing on their social media channels, in Facebook groups and on Instagram, can zap a lot of time and headspace and isn’t getting them into the conversations with the professionals they want to collaborate with for their business or career.

The Connector has seen some of their peers achieve great success on LinkedIn and understands they need to be more disciplined and strategic with their LinkedIn activity. Their profile presents them well and they may have posted an update or two, but there’s been no real plan related to what they’ve posted on LinkedIn.

Given their primary goal is connecting with others, The Connector wants to get better results from LinkedIn and needs a more strategic framework and clearer direction on what to do when they are on LinkedIn.

How the Connector can Maximise Their Time on LinkedIn

More regular LinkedIn activity for the Connector may include:

Responding with a follow up email to recent invitations to connect, asking ‘How can they help’? and looking for mutual opportunities to collaborate

Looking out for connection’s trigger events (e.g. new role or role anniversary) and starting more conversations via LinkedIn messaging

Checking who’s viewed their LinkedIn Profile and reaching out to relevant 2nd and 3rd degree connections and inviting them to connect

Following up face to face conversations by inviting new contacts to connect on LinkedIn and sharing / liking and commenting on these new connection’s LinkedIn articles or posts

Reaching out to influencers in their industry and beyond with tailored and relevant invitations to connect

Improving their LinkedIn newsfeed by cleaning up the companies and influencers they follow and sharing / liking and commenting on relevant company and influencer updates

Being more active in relevant groups

Sharing relevant articles and posts they read via messaging with their connections

The Contributor

The Contributor is a bit cynical about LinkedIn and may spend more time over on Twitter, where you’ll find them engaging with other industry leaders. They also spend their online time writing their blog, interviewing industry leaders for their podcast or attending or running online professional development events within and beyond their industry expertise.

The Contributor hasn’t traditionally spent time on LinkedIn so has not responded to recent invitations to connect. Their profile may have been written by their PR or Communication department, a copywriter or LinkedIn Profile writer, and their summary section is likely to be written in the 3rd person.

The Contributor has mixed feelings about LinkedIn and is put off by some of the chest beating and salesy behaviour they’ve seen on LinkedIn by some of their connections when they’ve logged into their LinkedIn account via their laptop. They are open to taking a second look at LinkedIn but need a compelling reason to be there.

Given their primary goal is sharing value adding content, educating and engaging other professionals in their industry, the Contributor can take some very simple actions to maximise their time on LinkedIn.

How the Contributor can Maximise Their Time on LinkedIn

More regular rituals for the Contributor may include:

Downloading the LinkedIn App on to their phone and responding more regularly to invitations to connect

Reviewing their profile and ensuring their Headline, Summary and Images reflect their professional goals

Selecting their top performing content and sharing it on LinkedIn as either a LinkedIn article or posts via their LinkedIn Profile

Responding to comments and likes on the content they share

Which LinkedIn user are you most like? Please check back in and let me know which tips you can adopt to maximise your time on LinkedIn.

Thank you for reading Think Bespoke’s insights. As one of Australia’s leading independent LinkedIn specialists and a Content Marketer who understands the value and importance of sharing your story, I enjoy helping individuals and organisations maximise their time online with LinkedIn. Find out more about Think Bespoke’s LinkedIn Services. You can sign up to my newsletter herewhere you will receive a complimentary download of Think Bespoke’s LinkedIn Profile Checklist to help you update your LinkedIn Profile.